Getting My Hands Dirty
A Memoir of Resilience and Transformation from the Gridiron to the Garden
Earnest and entertaining, the memoir Getting My Hands Dirty celebrates a lifetime of hard work, on and off the football field.
Former football player Chuck Hutchison’s inspirational memoir Getting My Hands Dirty covers hard work in sports, business, and gardening.
Hutchison grew up in an Ohio farmhouse in one of the state’s poorest counties. Though he was first interested in baseball, he transitioned to football, which he hated but stuck with for his father. He excelled at the sport and ended up winning a national title at Ohio State under legendary coach Woody Hayes. He played in the NFL before injuries derailed his own sports career, and he became a coach in the fledgling United States Football League. Interesting notes on what players and coaches think about in the course of their work are included.
After leaving sports behind, Hutchison pursued a business career. After retirement from this second working life, he dedicated himself to his elaborate garden, becoming expert at tending its needs. Herein, he shares lessons he learned along the way, couched in familiar terms as of doing one’s best and directing one’s own destiny. Social observations wend into the pages as well, such as considerations of why other people stayed in his hometown despite a lack of opportunities there. Such topics lead to additional general advice, as with encouragements not to fear change.
Throughout, the book celebrates the value of hard work, vivifying even memories of digging postholes, mucking cow pens, and baling hay. Hutchinson’s personal and mental health challenges are recorded in a motivational tone too. Humor is applied throughout, as with a recollection of the output of the stove in his childhood home: “I use the term ‘heated’ loosely—it was more like a suggestion of warmth that could be accessed only by the immediate radius of the stove.” Hutchison is self-deprecating at times, too, as with notes about his sartorial ineptitude.
Though the book includes some quips, most of its prose is quite direct. It shuns literary pretensions and self-presents as the work of an avowed nonreader. Its progression is quite anecdotal, though, and it hops between stories, its core lost amid discursions. At one point, it decries how awful television rabbit ears are to fiddle with; at another, it summarizes Hutchison’s father’s parenting philosophy; elsewhere, it describes in broad terms what high school was like. Non-sequitur details, as of classmates carrying pocketknives and about the games they played with them to pass the time, are also included.
A heartfelt memoir from an ex-football player, Getting My Hands Dirty is about sports, business, and the healing, meditative power of gardening.
Reviewed by
Joseph S. Pete
Disclosure: This article is not an endorsement, but a review. The publisher of this book provided free copies of the book and paid a small fee to have their book reviewed by a professional reviewer. Foreword Reviews and Clarion Reviews make no guarantee that the publisher will receive a positive review. Foreword Magazine, Inc. is disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255.
